India: Alang ship recycling yard to be upgraded with $76 m Japanese loan

The world’s largest stretch of ship-breaking beaches on Alang-Sosiya, in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district, will be upgraded through a $76 million soft loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

An official announcement on the loan will be made in Gandhinagar on Thursday during the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, multiple sources told BusinessLine.

The total cost of upgradation is $111.22 million, which would be financed by as much as 68 per cent through the JICA loan. The loan will have a tenure of 30 years at an interest rate of 1.2 per cent, with a repayment moratorium of 10 years.

The loan will be used to upgrade 70 yards over the next five years.

The planned upgrades building impervious floors to prevent pollutants from entering the sub-soil, improvement of existing environmental facilities such as incinerator and oil recovery systems, introduction of mobile decontamination units and pollution response equipment and installing large mobile cranes and beach cleaning wheel loaders and tank cleaning barge.

The upgradation plan is aimed at helping Alang comply with international standards on ship recycling and raise its share to 55 per cent from the existing 32 per cent, a Gujarat Maritime Board official said.

It also seeks to achieve zero discharge of waste into the sea and coastal area as well as zero minor accident in recycling oil tankers and other vessels.